By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
A Superior Court judge rejected Sonoma Land Trust's request Tuesday for an order halting the deposit of dredging sediment from Port Sonoma Marina onto a nearby ranch at the south end of Sonoma County.
Noting that the "scientific evidence is contradictory," Judge Knoel Owen said he based his decision on the interests of the Land Trust versus the ranch, which earns $300,000 a year from disposal of sediment on a 526-acre site on the other side of Highway 37 from the marina.
Whether the sediments are harmful to agricultural use of the ranch, as the Land Trust contends, remains to be determined at a subsequent trial, and Owen said he couldn't tell which side was more likely to prevail.
Unspoken at the hearing was the question of whether the land trust's suit, the first of its kind, was actually aimed at thwarting development of a proposed ferry terminal at Port Sonoma, located at the mouth of the Petaluma River on San Pablo Bay.
Ralph Benson, land trust executive director, said his nonprofit agency was intent on upholding a contract, called an easement, that prohibits any non-farming commercial use of the site, known as the Lower Ranch.
The land trust owns or holds such an easement over 3,000 acres of undeveloped bay lands along Highway 37.
"This lawsuit isn't about the ferry," Benson said.
Among the defendants named in the trust's lawsuit is Berg Holdings, a Sausalito company headed by Marin investor Skip Berg that manages the ranch, leases the the marina and owns the proposed ferry project, which received a $20 million federal grant last year.
Environmentalists see the proposed ferry terminal as the latest unwelcome development proposal for the bay lands, home to two endangered species.
In court papers, J.T. Wick of Berg Holdings said that former land trust board member Bill Kortum told him the lawsuit was intended to stop the ferry.
"That's just my political spin," Kortum said. He was no longer on the land trust board when it approved the lawsuit, which is about "a much bigger issue," he said.
Millions of taxpayer dollars are invested in easements that limit land development in Sonoma County, Kortum said.
"I'll let the declaration speak for itself," Wick said.
Matthew Zinn, the land trust's lawyer, said the suit was filed after attempts to negotiate the dredging issue with Berg Holdings broke down.
Dredging at the marina has been halted and cannot resume until September, Berg said. But Zinn said dredge spoils could arrive at the ranch from other sources at any time, and Berg said the ranch is seeking other dredging business.
The ranch is one of only three upland dredge disposal sites on San Francisco Bay, intended to avoid dumping sediment within the bay or in the ocean, Wick said.
Zinn told the judge Tuesday that depositing thousands of cubic yards of sediment on the ranch is "inimical" to agriculture and violates the easement.
Clayton Clement, an attorney representing the ranch, said the long-term plan was to elevate the property with dredged sediment and improve its agricultural productivity.
"No harm is being done," Clement said. The ranch has historically grown oat hay but potentially could yield more valuable crops, such as grapes, he said.
Port Sonoma holds a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge 80,000 cubic yards of sediment from the marina each year, totaling 800,000 cubic yards over the next 10 years.
© The Press Democrat.